


The Doctor is in

by ArivFroso, KagomeBenihime



Series: Treat for The Trickster [19]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Can Dean dodge the deal?, M/M, Monster of the Week, immortality chance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:47:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27096052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArivFroso/pseuds/ArivFroso, https://archiveofourown.org/users/KagomeBenihime/pseuds/KagomeBenihime
Summary: "Hey," Dean said, holding out the paper. "Look at this." Gabriel and Sam move closer to read."Stripper suffocates man with thighs?" Gabriel asked, raising an eyebrow.Dean rolled his eyes as he adjusted the paper. "No, this.""Man dies in hospital waiting room, organs missing?" Sam asked, eyebrows furrowing. He took the paper, reading quickly. "His liver was gone?"Dean nodded "And the dude was covered in bloody fingerprints. That weren't his."Gabriel shook his head slightly "Dave Caruso is stoked, I'm sure…"Dean glared at him as Sam read further."The fingerprints are from a guy that died in 1981…" Sam looked up, looking pensive."So… Zombies anyone?" Dean asked with a smirk.
Relationships: Gabriel/Sam Winchester
Series: Treat for The Trickster [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/753126
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	The Doctor is in

The demon screamed, thrashing in the chair he's strapped to as Dean closed the holy water flask. "You ready to talk?"

"I don't know," the demon cried. "I don't know anything!"

"Oh, you hear that, Sam? He doesn't know anything."

Sam smirked. "Yeah, I heard."

"I'm telling you the truth," the demon pleaded.

Dean looked shocked. "Oh, you are? Oh gosh, then I owe you an apology. Allow me to make it up to you." Dean opened the flask again, forcing the demon's mouth open and pouring it in. "I'm gonna ask you one last time...Where is Lilith?!"

The demon went quiet, head hanging. When he looked up again his eyes were black and he was smiling.

"With your mother. Yeah, she, uh, showed up right before I bent her over."

Dean leaned close. "I want a location. Or else…"

The demon scoffed. "Or what? You're gonna squirt your holy water in both ends? Please. Brother, that's like a flea bite compared to what's coming to me if I tell you jack. Do what you want. The only thing I'm scared of is the demon holding your ticket."

Dean straightened and looked at Sam with a nod. Sam moved toward a table with the exorcism book on it.

"Go ahead," the demon urged. "Send me back. I'll be waiting for you with a few pals. They're all dying to meet the great Dean Winchester." The demon's cocky smile slipped slightly when Sam moved past the table and opened the door to the next room.

Gabriel stepped out, eyes glowing in the dim light.

"Wh- no… no, there's no way…" the demon sputtered, pulling against his restraints earnestly now. "How the hell did you get a fucking angel in your pocket?!"

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, eyebrows furrowing in mock concern. "I thought the only thing that scared you was Lilith…"

Gabriel took a step forward, raising his hand slowly.

"I don't know where she is!" the demon screamed, struggling frantically now. "I don't know! I'm too low on the totem pole! They don't tell me anything important! I swear, I don't know!"

Gabriel lowered his hand slowly, looking hard at the demon. "He's telling the truth…"

"He's still a demon," Dean said harshly.

Sam leaned in to whisper in Gabriel's ear. "Can you kill the demon without hurting the person it's possessing?"

Gabriel sighed softly. "He's already dead… but I might be able to heal him…"

Sam nodded, his back to the demon so he couldn't see the hope in his eyes. "If you can."

Gabriel moved forward again, raising his hand and placing it on the demon's shoulder. There was a moment's pause where nothing happened, then came a flash and the demon slumped over.

Sam turned away to start cleaning up.

"That's not how you normally do it," Dean commented. "There's usually more screaming and eye burning…"

Gabriel looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Is that what you want? Screaming and eye burning?"

"No," Dean said, folding his arms. "Just saying it was different…"

"It's because I was saving him," Gabriel said as the man moaned weakly. "With the 'screaming and fire' he would be dead."

"Wait, you didn't kill it?" Dean demanded, moving forward.

"The demon's dead," Gabriel said softly. "Completely gone. If I had killed it the normal way, I would have killed the host too." He gave Sam a slight smile before bending to check the man and untie him. "Easy… you're alright…" Sam glanced over to return the smile.

"Oh," Dean said, relaxing. He went to help Sam clean up.

After things were cleaned up and Gabriel had altered the man's memory and taken him to the hospital, Gabriel reappeared, spread eagled on the floor with a groan.

Sam looked over at him, smiling slightly. "Everything ok?"

Gabriel pouted angrily. "Stupid demons…" He flailed around in a classic tantrum. "It's like they're riding humans ragged just for kicks now! I mean, who does that?!"

"Demons do?" Sam asked, moving over by Gabriel and smiling down at him. "Isn't that kinda their m.o.?"

Gabriel rolled, wrapping around Sam's legs like a slap-on bracelet. "I don't like it." He whined softly.

Sam reached down to run his fingers through Gabriel's hair. "Nobody likes it," he assured him.

Gabriel purred slightly before sitting up with a harrumph. "Still stupid," he muttered.

"Hey," Dean said, holding out the paper. "Look at this." Gabriel and Sam move closer to read.

"Stripper suffocates man with thighs?" Gabriel asked, raising an eyebrow.

Dean rolled his eyes as he adjusted the paper. "No, this."

"Man dies in hospital waiting room, organs missing?" Sam asked, eyebrows furrowing. He took the paper, reading quickly. "His liver was gone?"

Dean nodded "And the dude was covered in bloody fingerprints. That weren't his."

Gabriel shook his head slightly "Dave Caruso is stoked, I'm sure…"

Dean glared at him as Sam read further.

"The finger prints are from a guy that died in 1981…" Sam looked up, looking pensive.

"So… Zombies anyone?" Dean asked with a smirk.

\---

They got into town and over to the coroner's office, Gabriel once again whining about wearing the suit, and examined the body.

"As you can see, the rest of the body is intact," the coroner said, as he pulled out the slab.

"Now, where the liver was ripped out, did you happen to notice any...ah...teeth marks?" Dean asked

The coroner gave them an 'are you insane' look. "Can I see your badges?"

Sam nodded. "Of course, sure."

They all flashed their badges.

The coroner nodded. "Fine. So you're cops and morons."

Dean blinked. "Excuse me? No, no. We're very smart."

The coroner sighed. "The liver was not  _ ripped _ out. It was removed. Surgically. By someone who knew their way around a scalpel. Didn't you read my report?"

Dean opened his mouth but Gabriel spoke up quickly. "Yes, we did, I'm sorry for my colleague, he hasn't had his coffee yet and is a bit… disoriented."

The coroner shrugged, turning away from Gabriel's reassuring smile. "Whatever…" He covered the body again, sliding the body back into the cooler, using the squeal of the table to cover his mutterings about incompetent agents always questioning him.

When the trio made it back to the hotel, Sam was smiling.

"What?" Dean asked.

Sam shrugged. "Nothing. So, that kind of punches a hole in our zombie theory, huh? That scalpel thing?"

"Yeah, zombie with skills, 'Dr. Quinn, medicine zombie'," Gabriel said.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Maybe we're on the wrong track, Dean, looking for hacked-up corpses."

"What should we be looking for?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Survivors," Sam replied "This isn't zombie lunch. This is organ theft."

They were silent for a moment before Gabriel piped up, "Found one." The brothers looked to him in confusion.

"What do you mean you-" Dean started before they were suddenly in a hospital hallway outside a patient's room.

Dean staggered slightly, putting a hand on the wall to keep his balance. Sam nodded to a passing nurse that seemed concerned before turning back to Dean.

"Come on, hold it together," Sam hissed. Dean glared back at him but straightened his jacket with a huff. "Where are we?" Sam asked, turning to Gabriel.

"The hospital room of Henry Denson," Gabriel said. "He was found in a motel across town in a bathtub full of ice. Might be worth an interview, as long as he's not grumpy"

Henry was, rightfully, grumpy. "I told the cops all of this yesterday. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"It's just a couple of questions, sir," Sam said, trying to sound sympathetic.

"Hey, man. I just got my kidney stolen. I'm tired," Henry countered.

"We'll be out of here quick," Dean added. "Don't you want to get the guy?"

"Will it get me back my kidney?" Henry asked mournfully.

"So what's the last thing you remember?" Sam asked, trying to just get through it.

Henry sighed, realizing they weren't gonna drop it. "Feeding my meter. I got jumped from behind...and then I wake up strapped to a table. And then the worst pain you could possibly imagine, only worse. And then I black out again. Thank God. And then I wake up screaming in some no-tell motel in a bathtub full of ice."

"Do you remember anything about the surgery – you know, what the guy looked like, any details about the room?" Dean asked, taking notes.

"Let me think about that. Yeah...one thing is coming back to me. You know what I remember?" Henry asked sarcastically before shouting, "Getting my kidney cut out of my body!"

Gabriel put on his most charming smile, his hand moving to the morphine drip, hanging just out of Henry's reach. “Is that… really all you can remember?”

Henry blinked. “W-Well...”

Gabriel sighed, dropping his hand “I guess it is too much to expect you to remember any more than that…” 

Sam nodded slowly, closing his little notebook and pocketing it.

“Well, we won’t waste any more of your time then, Mr. Denson,” Gabriel said in a business like tone, turning to go.

“H-He didn’t look right!” Henry blurted.

“Excuse me?” Dean asked.

“He looked… weird…” Henry said, shrugging. “Like… gray...ish.” 

“Grayish?” Sam asked.

Henry nodded. “Yeah, like he hadn’t been outside in years or… or like his skin was dead.”

Gabriel nodded slightly, looking thoughtful. “That does seem helpful…”

Henry’s grin vanished when Gabriel patted his shoulder. “Thank you very much, Mr. Denson!” he said cheerily before turning and exiting the room.

The brothers followed, ignoring Henry’s indigent yelling.

“Why didn’t you fix him?” Dean asked. He didn’t really care either way but… Sam usually did, and Gabriel always wanted to do it for Sam.

Gabriel snickered. “Because he was rude. Why would I wanna help a grumpy Gus like him?”

Sam chuckled. Dean glanced at him, worried again that this trickster might not be the best influence, but didn't say anything else.

Gabriel poofed them back to the hotel room after stopping for burgers. He sat on the bed and tried to sense anything unusual. Sam jumped on his laptop to search. Dean ate his burgers and pretended nothing was wrong.

A while later, Gabriel sighed. "I can't sense any monsters…"

Sam sat back slightly. "So, I got a theory."

Dean looked over. "Yeah?" he asked around a mouth-full.

Sam bitch-faced at him before continuing. "Yeah... I talked to Mr. Happy's doctor. Turns out his incisions were sewn up with silk."

Gabriel sat forward slightly, looking thoughtful.

Dean blinked. "That's weird… right?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, nowadays it is. But silk used to be the suture of choice back in the early 19th century. It was really problematic. Patients would get massive infections. The death rate was insane."

Gabriel sighed fondly. "Good times." Both of the brothers looked at him. He shrugged. "What? I had some good years back then."

Sam sighed. "Right, anyways, so doctors, they had to do whatever they could to keep infections from spreading. One way was maggots."

Dean gave Sam a look. "Dude, I'm eating."

Sam shrugged. Dean had put him off his own food more than once, a little payback wouldn't kill him. "It actually kind of worked because maggots, they eat bad tissue and they leave good tissue. And get this. When they found our guy, his body cavity was stuffed full of maggots."

Dean bulked. "Dude, I'm eating!" He put the burger down with a sigh. "Alright, let me get this straight. So, people are getting ganked, right?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

Dean nodded. "A little "antiques roadshow" surgery, some organ theft. But why is this all sounding familiar?"

"Because you heard it before," Sam said softly. "When you were a kid... from Dad. Doc Benton… real-life doctor, lived in New Hampshire, brilliant and obsessed with alchemy, especially how to live forever. So, in 1816, Doc abandons his practice and…"

Dean nodded, remembering. "Right, yeah, nobody hears from him for like 20 years, and all of sudden, people start showing up dead."

"Dead or – or missing an organ or the hand or some other kind of part." Sam agreed.

Dean nodded again. "Cause whatever he was doing was actually working. He just kept on ticking. Parts would wear out, he'd replace them. But I thought Dad hunted him down and took his heart out."

Sam nodded before sighing. "Yeah, I guess the Doc must have plugged in a new one."

"All right," Dean said. "Where's he doing the deed?"

"According to this," Sam said, gesturing to their dad's journal and his laptop, "Benton's picky about where he sets up his lab. He likes dense forest with access to a river or stream or some kind of freshwater."

"Why?" Dean asked, taking another large bite of his burger.

Sam hid a slight smile at what he was about to do. "Because that's where he likes to dump the bile and intestines and fecal matter."

Dean looks ready to puke as he lowers his burger again.

"Lost your appetite yet?" Gabriel asked.

Dean thinks for a minute, looking at the burger and then at Sam, then back at the burger. "Oh baby," he said softly to the beef patty, "I can't stay mad at you." He took another huge bite, staring at Sam as he chewed.

Gabriel chuckles softly before looking thoughtful. "Benton…" he said softly.

Dean, surprisingly, had the courtesy to swallow most of his bite before giving Gabriel a guarded look. "Don't tell me you knew him…"

Gabriel shifted slightly, looking guilty.

Sam sat forward. "Did he make a deal with Loki? Give you something for the knowledge to do what he's doing?" He didn't sound mad, just curious… which almost made Dean more uncomfortable than all the gross talk.

Gabriel shook his head. "Oh, no, nothing like that." He sighed. "It was during one of my… down phases. There were times I would do just about anything to try and get good old Dad's attention… like with the rabbit's foot. I wasn't being particularly careful… he confronted me about living so long…"

Dean's eyes widened. "You didn't-"

"Of course not!" Gabriel said quickly "He wanted me too, but I refused. I may have been on a bad path then, but even I could see what he was…" Gabriel looked down. "Guess he figured out his own way anyways…"

"Anyway," Sam cut in. "I think I found just the place." He turned his laptop around to show them the satellite gps images.

Gabriel looked them over. "Abandoned cabins?"

Sam opened his mouth to respond when Dean's phone rang. He pulled it out and looked at the number. "Bobby," he said as he put it to his ear.

"Hey," Bobby gruffed. "Think I got a bead on Ruby."

Dean lowered the phone putting it on speaker. "On Ruby? What did you find?"

"Rufus Turner," Bobby said.

Dean blinked. "Who's that? Like a Cleveland steamer?"

"He's a hunter," Bobby said. "Or he used to be."

"And now?" Dean asked, standing from the table to pace with the phone.

"Hermit mostly," Bobby said. "Does a little selling on the side. Anyway, I put the word out on Ruby months ago. He just called. Said one of his regulars might have seen her."

"And he thinks it's Ruby?" Dean asked quickly.

"Blonde, bad attitude," Bobby said. "Going by the name Mary…"

"Well, it's kind of a sloppy move, isn't it? Getting seen by someone who's close to your friend." 

Bobby scoffed. "Friend? Haven't laid eyes on him in fifteen years. He's not the Christmas card type. I doubt she knows any of it. Canaan, Vermont."

Dean nodded. "Thanks, Bobby. We're on our way."

"One other thing," Bobby said quickly. "Take a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue."

"Okay," Dean said before closing the phone. "Come on," he said. "We're going after Ruby."

"What?" Sam said in surprise. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second."

"Come on," Dean said, moving to his bed. "Get your stuff. The clock's ticking."

"Look, I think we should stay here and finish the case," Sam said.

Dean paused. "You insane?"

"Dean, there's no way she still has the Colt!" Sam protested. "That was months ago! She probably gave it to Lilith the second she got it."

Dean's jaw worked for a second. "Well, then I'll kill her. Win-win."

"Dean…" Sam shook his head.

"Sam. We're going!" Dean said sharply.

"No!" Sam snapped

"Why the hell not?" Dean yelled back

"Dean, this," Sam said, gesturing to the research, "this here. Now. This is what's gonna save you."

"What? Chasing some Frankenstein?" Dean asked.

"Frankenstein was the scientist, the monster was actually-" Gabriel began, but Dean cut him off.

“I know what I said!” Dean snapped. “This guy could be the scientist and the monster.”

"Chasing immortality," Sam said, Dean stared at him in shock. "Look, Benton can't die. We find out how he did it, we can do it to you."

Gabriel stared at Sam, shocked by what he was proposing.

"What are you talking about?" Dean managed.

"You have to die before you go to Hell, right?" Sam said. "So, if you can never die, then…"

"Sam…" Gabriel said softly.

Dean shook his head, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Forget it, Sammy. The only reason to catch this guy is to put him down. That's it. You wanna stay? Fine. But do it to finish the job." He glanced at Gabriel before shaking his head and leaving. The door shut with a definitive thud.

Gabriel stayed silent. He hadn't realized how desperate Sam had gotten about this. He waited for Sam to speak.

"Be careful, Sammy," Gabriel heard Dean mumble on the other side of the door.

At almost the same time, Sam breathed, "Be careful, Dean…"

Gabriel hid a small smile. These two… why couldn't his brothers have been like this…

"Ok," Sam said, almost making Gabriel jump. "Where is he?"

"Pardon?" Gabriel asked.

"You can sense stuff. You found the monster before, right? So where is he?"

Gabriel blinked. "It's not that easy, Sam."

Sam stood up. "Is it a proximity thing? If we head out there, do you think you could find him?"

"He's still, for all intents and purposes, still human. Do you know how many humans are in this area? I would have to individually check each of them. That would take… hours, or days." Gabriel said softly.

Sam nodded. "Then we'll do it the old fashioned way."

Gabriel sighed and nodded, knowing what was coming next.

"Best way is to split up," Sam said. "Cover more ground."

Gabriel's shoulders slumped, but he knew Sam was adamant right now. "Alright…"

\---

Sam entered the abandoned cabin and looked around. He found a journal sitting on a nearby table and pocketed it. He moved to the cellar, finding a man's dead body lying on the operating table. He cursed softly.

_ "Gabriel _ ,  _ I think I found it…" _ He whispered in his mind as he kept looking around. A slight noise made him jump. He looked through the ragged curtains to see another body. He moved closer slowly. There's a woman strapped down on another operating table, her arm stretched out beside her and covered in maggots. Sam grimaced. She's missing skin…

Sam leaned in to place his fingers on the pulse point of her neck. The woman gasped and her eyes sprung open, making Sam jump back in surprise. The woman whimpered in pain and fear, struggling frantically.

"Shh! Shh! Shh! It's okay. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm gonna help you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Sam whispered, trying to soothe her enough she wouldn't draw attention to them. He grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around her arm, shushing her the whole time. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

A door opened upstairs and the woman started crying again, unable to help herself. Sam covered her mouth but Benton started down the stairs with a lamp to investigate. Sam picked her up and climbed out the window quickly, dashing for his car.

"OK, watch your head," he said, placing the woman in the car. "I'm sorry, it's ok, I'm sorry."

He dashes to the drivers side and started the car before a grayish hand grabbed his hair and slammed his head into the steering wheel. The girl started screaming as Sam threw it in reverse and slammed the gas, spinning the car around before shifting to drive and rocketing towards the alchemist doctor, crushing him under the car before driving away quickly.

"It's ok, it's ok now," Sam said, trying to soothe the woman, not noticing Benton stand up again. His head sat at an unnatural angle as he watched the car drive away.

\---

Sam dropped the woman at the hospital and was just getting back to the hotel when his phone rang. He checked the id before flipping it open.

"Dean."

"Yeah," Dean sighed.

"Did you get the Colt?" Sam asked.

"What do you think?" Dean snapped.

Sam sighed. "So, does that mean Ruby is, uh…"

"No, no, she deserves to die a dozen times over, but I couldn't find her…" Dean said.

"Dean…" Sam sighed. He could tell his brother was upset about this, but what could he really say?

"I'm really screwed, Sammy," Dean sighed.

"No," Sam said. "No, you're just…"

"But you were right," Dean said. "The Colt's gone, and this time I'm really screwed, Sam."

"Maybe not," Sam said quickly. "Look, Dean, I found Benton's cabin."

Dean sat up slightly, worried. "You okay? Was he there?"

"Yeah," Sam said.

"Did you kill him?" Dean asked.

"No," came the slightly muttered response.

"What do you mean, "no"?" Dean asked.

Sam sighed. "Dean, please just listen for a second. I found his lab book, and it has the formula."

"What, the live-forever formula?" Dean asked, his voice heavy with sarcastic disbelief.

"Yeah," Sam replied, ignoring the tone of Dean's voice.

"Great, let me guess. I got to drink blood out of a baby's skull?" Dean growled, rolling his eyes.

Sam sighed. "No, that's the thing. It's not black magic. There's no blood sacrifice or anything. It's just science, Dean. Very, very extremely weird science, but…"

"Wait, wait, wait," Dean said, trying to get his disbelief under control. "What are...What are you saying? You think…"

"Dean, I think it might be doable. I mean, I know we've hit a lot of walls, but I...I think this formula, I think it might be it. This could save you."

Dean shook his head slowly. "Okay, so, this formula…"

"Well, I mean, look, look, we're not in the clear yet. There are still things that I don't get… I'll have to ask Gabriel when he gets back but-"

Before Sam could continue, an arm came from behind him and covered his mouth with a rag. Sam struggled and dropped the phone.

"Sam?" Dean called, hearing the muffled commotion. "Sammy!" Dean cursed. "Gabriel!" he yelled, "I don't know where you are but get your feathered ass in gear!"

"Ok, first, rude," came a voice from the back seat, "and two, I've been trying. There's interference…"

After Dean finished swerving and swearing, he growled, "The hell do you mean interference?!"

Gabriel shook his head. "I'm not sure… something around that area… I can't fly in. The best way is to walk in with you. But I know right where it is."

Dean cursed. "It'll take too long to get back!"

Gabriel was silent for a moment before saying softly, "Pull over."

Dean, without questioning, immediately pulled to the side of the road and stopped. He looked back to gauge Gabriel's expression.

Gabriel took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Dean felt that strange lurch in his gut that meant Gabriel was flying them somewhere. He opened his mouth to yell at him for leaving Baby on the side of the road somewhere when he realized he was still in the car, now sitting in the parking lot of the motel they'd been staying at.

"Nice job," Dean admitted, shutting the car off and running inside.

Gabriel muttered something incomprehensible before he seemed to recover enough to follow, picking up Sam's phone from the sidewalk.

"No sign of him," Dean said, coming back out. "Looks like he took his journal back, too. Did Sam tell you where he found him?"

Gabriel nodded. "Yeah." He looked at Dean quickly. "What about your dad's journal? If he gets a hold of that…"

Dean cursed and rushed inside again.

_ Sam…  _ Gabriel called worriedly, the only reason he could see for not being able to reach Sam would be if he was unconscious, but…

Dean came out again, cursing. "It's gone. I-"

Gabriel's eyes snapped open as he felt a glimmer in his mind. "Got him." He grabbed Dean's arm and flew them to the woods outside the cabin.

Dean opened his mouth to yell at Gabriel, but the angel quickly covered his mouth, pushing him up against the wall. Through the window, they could hear a voice.

"You can relax," the voice said softly. "It's all gonna be okay. Ain't nothing gonna happen here that you got to worry about, Sammy. Your chances of coming out of this procedure alive? Very, very high."

"How do you know my name?" came Sam's voice.

"Oh… I know," the other voice, Doctor Benton, said. "You think I'm some kind of monster, don't you? Well, I got to tell you, I have never done one thing that I did not have to do. This whole eternal-life thing is very high-maintenance. If something goes bad, like my eyes here… you got to replace them. And sometimes things get damaged, like when your father cut out my heart. Now, that...That was very inconvenient. So, I'm sure that you can understand all the joy I felt when I read all about myself here in his journal. Kind of makes this whole thing just feel like some kind of family reunion, don't it? Well, I guess it's about time that we get this thing started." They could hear Sam struggling as the doctor continued. "This journal will come in handy… if I start using parts from monsters… maybe they won't need to be replaced so often… but until then."

Dean rushed in, shooting at the doctor's back. "Shoot all you want," Doctor Benton said calmly as he turned, his eyes widened. "You…"

Gabriel stood in the doorway, glaring at the doctor. "Yeah," he said softly, "me…"

The doctor moved slowly forward, reaching as if to touch Gabriel's face. "Still the same…" he sighed. "So beautiful…"

Gabriel didn't move, but the doctor's fingers stopped a few inches away as if an invisible wall was there. "Know why?" he asked softly. "I don't kill for my looks."

Before Benton could reply, Dean lunged forward and stabbed him.

Benton looked down. "A knife? What part of immortality do you not understand? Pity about the heart, though. It was a brand-new one."

"Good," Dean said. "It should be pumping nice and strong…" He held up a bottle of chloroform. "Sending this stuff throughout your whole body."

The doctor staggered slightly before collapsing.

Sam struggled on the table. "Little help?" he called.

Dean rushed over and cut the restraints, not bothering to waste time undoing them. "You ok?" he asked, looking Sam over.

"I'm fine," Sam assured him, pulling the tape from his eyelids quickly, his eyes on his angel. "What about you?" He glanced at his brother.

Dean shrugged. "Your guardian angel's got us both pretty covered," he muttered grudgingly.

Gabriel picked up John's journal and the doctor's book, glancing at the unconscious form on the floor before snapping.

The doctor was suddenly on the table Sam had vacated and was strapped down tightly.

Sam put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel looked up at him, smiling weakly.

"How do we kill it?" Sam asked softly, eyes on Benton. Now he saw the good doctor in the mix-matched flesh, he felt sick with himself for having considered  _ this _ an alternative for his brother.

"We can't," Gabriel said softly. "But I have an idea…"

After some work, the boys had a deep enough hole. Gabriel's backhoe was definitely a plus this time. They put the 'good doc' in an old freezer. Gabriel sealed it magically, but Dean still felt the need to cover it in chains. As they were getting ready to bury it, they heard pounding from within.

"No! No! Don't! Stop it! I can help you! No!" The Doctor pleaded, "I can read the formula for you! I can help you live!"

"Enjoy forever in there, Doc," Dean said as they began shoveling in the hole.

"Let me out!" The doctor screamed, "I can save you! No. Don't."

Gabriel stepped forward, holding out the doctors book which caught fire in his hand and crumbled away into the hole. "Ashes to ashes… Benton," he said softly.


End file.
